FAQ: Frequently Asked Questions about ClipArtETC

The Florida Center for Instructional Technology (FCIT) supports the appropriate integration of technology in the classroom. We believe students should actively use technology to create their own content. To do this, students (and teachers) need the raw materials with which to build their own presentations and publications. As educators, we know how frustrating it is to search for clipart on the Internet. Dancing Teddy bears are easy to find. More significant content is much harder. Our goal is to offer a quality collection of resources for the classroom. We are building this collection as quickly as time and funding allow. We always welcome hearing your suggestions and comments.

Captions are taken directly from the original sources when possible. Please note the date of the source you are using. The information, attitudes, and terminology reflect the original source in many cases. We believe that retaining the original captions adds historical and educational value to this collection. In some cases, such as political cartoons, the bias of the original cartoonist should be obvious and is an important part of the educational value of the illustration. In other cases the bias in the text is more subtle, such as when a particular animal is described as of "little value," but can still be used in the classroom as an example of changing cultural attitudes. When the spelling of a word has changed, we try to add the modern spelling to the keywords field so that you can still find it using the search engine.

We created this site for students and teachers to use for non-commercial projects. However, in response to hundreds and hundreds of commercial requests, we have added a shopping cart system to the site for those who would like to license any of the images commercially. Please see the Licensing page for more information.

Windows: Right mouse click on any of the images and choose save image to disk. Select the destination folder and click save. You can also click and drag the image to your desktop.

Macintosh: Right mouse click on any of the images and choose download image to disk. Select the destination folder and click save. You can also click and drag the image to your desktop.

Note: Each piece of clipart will appear in four different sizes for you to choose from. If you want a very small image, you can use the methods described above to select the tiny thumbnail version that appears in the top left corner of the page. The shaded box around the thumbnail image is NOT a part of the image and will not show in the file that you download.

For multimedia presentations (e.g. Keynote or PowerPoint) or web pages, use one of the four images that display on the clipart page. These images are in the GIF format. Select the size you need. There is no reason to select a GIF image larger than what you want to display if you are using it in a presentation or webpage.

If you are using the image for print purposes it is recommended that you download the TIFF file. If you try to print from a GIF image, the result will usually be disappointing since the GIF files are too low in resolution for quality printing. The TIFF files, however, are very large (1-100 MB) and may take several minutes to download if you have a slow connection to the Internet.

Some of the items on the ClipArt ETC website also have an EPS file in addition to the TIFF file. The EPS is a vector file that is resolution independent. That means you can change it to any size you want, no matter how large, without getting a jaggy, pixelated result. EPS files can be edited in a vector drawing program such as Illustrator and can also be used for printing purposes.

After downloading the clipart, launch your image editing program (e.g. Photoshop Elements). Click on the file menu and choose open. Select the file you downloaded from the dialog box and you may now edit the graphic.

If you want to add color to the image, you must change the mode from "indexed color" (which has only black, white, and a few grays) to "RGB color." To change the mode in Photoshop Elements, go to the "Image" menu and scroll down to "Mode." Then select "RGB Color" from the mode dropdown menu. For more information about colorizing clipart, please see coloring graphics.

If you are just using a few clipart items for decoration putting "Clipart courtesy FCIT" in small print is sufficient. If you have more room please include the URL http://etc.usf.edu/clipart/ so that others can find the site. If you are including clipart as part of the content of a report, you should cite the illustration as you would do for any other source. Your teacher may specify a particular format for citing web sources. We have tried to make it easy for you by including information about the original source where one exists. In general you should include the original source, title of the item, when you downloaded it, and the URL where you found it. Here's an example:

Gray, Asa. The Elements of Botany for Beginners and for Schools. New York: The American Book Company, 1887. "Live oak leaves." Retrieved January 1, 2012, from http://etc.usf.edu/clipart/plants/live_oak_1.html.